Monthly Archives: September 2013

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Bryce Augustine will be our speaker for the San Fernando Valley Orchid Society meeting on Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013. Bryce is a long time member of the Santa Barbara Orchid society and an American Orchid Society judge. He owns and operates Monsoon Flora Orchids (monsoonorchids.com), which he established in 1991 and where he produces Paphs and Phrags in flasks, compots and seedlings.

He is a 20-year veteran of the American Orchid Society judging system as an accredited AOS judge and brought AOS judging to the central coast in April 2008 by creating a new Judging site in Santa Barbara where he served as its chairman for two years. His presentations are always fun and informative and this coming meeting will be no exception. He will cover many different aspects of Orchids, covering how propagation from seedpods, rainforests, and your own backyard jungle are interrelated. If you were unable to attend the July meeting at the Malibu Orchid Society, you missed a real treat. I went to that meeting, and learned a great deal. He had a great PowerPoint presentation and a live demonstration. After the meeting, I asked Mr. Augustine if he would come and talk to our group, and he graciously agreed. He also brought some great items for the POT. Some were “compots” of many small plants in a single pot. Mark your calendars so won’t miss this fabulous speaker!

You have all heard of a birth month gem, but did you know there are birth month flowers? We can take that one level further, and find there are also birth month Orchids. From the origin of a flower’s name … Continue reading →

Applications for smart phones, or “apps” as they are most often referred to, are changing the way we interact with our world on a daily basis. Now there are Orchid “apps” for smart phones for Orchid lovers and/or growers which can help you keep track of all the orchids in your collections.

One increasingly popular “app” for the iPhone is the Orchid Notebook. It helps you keep records on your orchids, their names, their appearance, and it offers helpful hints and tricks on how to grow them. Orchid Notebook is easy to use. Just type in the name or number of the Orchid, take a picture with your phone and the entire orchid collection appears on your phone.

Adding, deleting and updating your plants is easy. Orchid Notebook shows a running total of the plants in your collection for a quick reference. This is particularly helpful when shopping for Orchids at shows and nurseries.

Key Features:
* Learn basic information about orchids
* Discover how to care for orchids
* Read about propagation techniques
* Enter information about the orchids in your collection into the database
* Enter photos of your orchids in your collection
* Build a wish list of the orchids you want to buy
* Export your collection and wish list information via a comma separated value (csv) file allowing the user to import the information into a spreadsheet
* Save a backup of your orchid collection datafile and share it with your other devices (iPhone/iPad)

The app offers fairly accurate culture information for the most popular Orchid types including Cattleya, Dendrobium, Oncidium, Paphiopedilum, and Phalaenopsis. The Orchid Notebookalso offers information for uncommon types of orchids such as Brassavola, Encyclia, Phragmepedium, and Vanilla. The Orchid Notebook includes sample pictures that are most helpful. It does not yet contain information about Cymbidium, Miltonia, or Vanda.

It is not a perfect app by any means, but it is a step in the right direction. No doubt, future versions of Orchid Notebook and other Orchid apps will follow that hopefully will be more full featured that this one. One noted problem with this app, is that important botanical terms such as ‘species’, ‘hybrid’, and ‘variety’ are used interchangeably, even though their meanings are entirely different. We hope that if enough Orchid Hobbyists comment on this app the authors will get the message and consult real orchid experts to help work out all the bugs of this program.

In the near future, as new orchid applications hit the market, hobbyists will have many more options available to enhance their orchid growing experience. The ‘free’ version of Orchid Notebook allows for five entries of an orchid collection and is just to allow you to try the app before you buy. The full version of Orchid Notebook is only $2.99. It is a shame that it is not yet available for the Android world, but if you have an iPhone this is still a good choice for the casual grower or someone just getting into orchids.

Orchid was introduced in 1845 by John Lindley in School Botany, due to an incorrect attempt to extract the Latin stem (orchis) from Orchidaceae.

The Greek myth of Orchis explains the origin of the plants. Orchis, the son of a nymph and a satyr, came upon a festival of Dionysus (Bacchus) in the forest. He drank too much, and attempted to rape a priestess of Dionysus. For his insult, he was torn apart by the Bacchanalians. His father prayed for him to be restored, but the gods instead changed him into a flower.

These flowers were previously called Orchis, Satyrion (Satyrion feminina), or “ballockwort”.

San Diego International Orchid FairOctober 5-6, 2013

Plan to visit the San Diego Botanical Garden the weekend of Saturday, October 5th through Sunday, October 6th to see the splendidly colorful San Diego International Orchid Fair. Countless varieties of orchids grace the grounds, some in exhibits and some for sale.

Learn from the experts how to care for your newly purchased orchids at “Orchids 101,”our ongoing lectures on culture and care.

Where: The San Diego Botanic Garden

Hours:9:00am to 5:00pm

Cost: The Orchid Show inside the garden is Free with paid daily admission to the Botanical Garden. (see details below)

NOTE: You can also get in FREE if you have a membership at the San Diego Botanical Garden or any of the other 200 Gardens in the Reciprocal Membership program including the LA Arboretum, The American Horticultural Society or the American Orchid Society (must show Current Membership card).